Steam confirms your account cannot be passed on after you die

Death is inevitable which, yes, is a rather morbid thought to start the day with, but it’s true.

The great beyond beckons for us all, whatever that entails. Humans have spent centuries wondering what exactly greets us all after death.

Have you ever wondered what happens to our Steam account when we’re no longer around to enjoy it?

Me neither, and yet Valve has somewhat clarified the answer to that very question.

Unfortunately, Steam accounts cannot be passed on to another individual after we pass away so they, I suppose, die with us.

I’m not sure anyone was really planning on leaving their username and password in their last will and testament but if you were, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

This tidbit of information was first spotted by ResetEra user delete12345 after someone asked Steam’s customer support, “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon but when I do, could ownership of my Steam account be transferred via a will?”

To this, Steam replied, “Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable. Steam support can’t provide someone else with access to the account or merge its contents with another account.”

“I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will,” they continued.

Steam is packed full with free demos for you to try, including this one for the recently released Sand Land.

It begs the question: How would Steam know? Not that I’m encouraging you to cheat the system.

I just can’t see the transference of an account being on the same difficulty scale as an escapade in Mission Impossible.

The official line though is that your Steam account dies with you, all of your beloved games - and your backlog - lost forever.

It’s kind of sad when you think about it. I’m sure you own physical items you imagine leaving to loved ones, perhaps some of those are gaming related.

Perhaps you’ve spent many happy hours gaming with this particular loved one, with the gifted item being symbolic of that.

It only seems a shame that concept cannot be applied to digital purchases but this simply exacerbates the already rife concern over digital ownership and its temporary nature.